The Drops

I’m training for an open water swim race this summer (2.1 miles in Lake Superior, which means it can be real cold). I am in the phase where I can both see that I’ve made progress in my swimming and where I have moments when I’m really nervous that I’m not going to be ready when race day comes. 2.1 miles is a lot of miles when the average temperature of the water is 40 degrees (warmer in the summer, but still!)

Tonight I was scheduled to go for a swim after work and when the time came to actually go to the pool I developed a very bad case of the “don’t wannas”. It was cold outside. And rainy. And I was hungry. And the whole process of getting to the pool, getting on my boring swimsuit (Does anyone need me to rant about the absolute dead zone of style that is plus size athletic swimwear again? No?), and making the cold walk from the locker room to the pool just seemed like Too Much.

But then I got a pep talk via text from my husband and re-read Swistle’s “In the Bucket. IN!” post (which is perhaps the most useful blog post I’ve ever read) and I went to the pool. Did I have an amazing swim? No. Did I put some drops in the damn bucket? YES ma’am.

And, of course, both my husband and Swistle were right: I was glad that I did it and doing something was better than doing nothing. And then I went to Target and was starving  so, long story short, my children were REALLY pleased with the snack to responsibility vegetables ratio that resulted. In my defense, the ice cream sandwiches were on clearance.

I have three months left to train. Lots of drops left to put in the bucket.